FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Thunder Bay, ON (September 12, 2018) – Two Thunder Bay residents were served with fines after pleading guilty under provincial animal welfare legislation to leaving a dog unattended in a vehicle.

Veish Wasilewski, 68, and Barbara Kozolowski, 66, pled guilty in a Thunder Bay Provincial Offences Court on August 31, 2018 to one count each of causing an animal to be in distress. The Justice of the Peace fined them each $200.

On June 18, 2018, an Ontario SPCA officer with the Thunder Bay & District Humane Society responded to a call about a dog left in a vehicle outside a business near Memorial and Central avenues in Thunder Bay. A terrier-type dog was observed panting heavily inside a vehicle. A temperature probe placed through the window revealed the inside of the vehicle was 38°C.

The officer located the owners and removed the dog from the vehicle. The dog’s owners were ordered to immediately have the dog examined by a veterinarian. That examination revealed that the dog was suffering from a very high body temperature and was kept for observation at the veterinary clinic before being released.

“Due to the quick response of the officers, this situation was addressed before serious injury occurred,” says Lynn Michaud, Senior Inspector, Ontario SPCA.

Protecting animals since 1873, Ontario SPCA is Ontario's animal welfare organization. A registered charity comprised of close to 50 communities.

Since 1919, when Ontario's first animal welfare legislation was proclaimed, the Ontario SPCA, with the help of its Communities, has been entrusted to maintain and enforce animal welfare legislation. The Act provides Ontario SPCA Agents and Inspectors with police powers to do so.